Microsoft Lists – evolving the value of SharePoint lists and beyond

Thanks @Mark Kashman and Miceile Barrett - this looks really good!

I've been working in IT for long enough to see Microsoft first bring everything together into SharePoint (lists, surveys, etc) and now, over the past few years, "disintegrate" it back again (eg Lists, Forms, etc); this is the latest manifestation of that.

I note that "My Lists" are stored in a user's OneDrive.

Will Microsoft Lists be part of all Microsoft 365 plans [that include OneDrive]? E1|A1? E3|A3? E5|E5? 

Will Lists follow Forms in the freemium model? Starting off as an "included" product for no additional cost, but evolve to become multiple editions with more capable editions becoming separately chargeable SKUs?

Can you provide some guidance on the lifecycle of "My Lists"?  Let me explain...

1. Alice starts at Contoso.
2. Contoso has lots of semi-structured data spread across post-it notes, emails, chat, spreadsheets, etc.  That's what they do at Contoso.
3. Alice sees Miceile Barrett video, and is inspired! Alice creates a Lists list in "My Lists" [stored in her personal OneDrive]
4. Alice shares it with Bob.  Bob loves it!  Alice's list is shared with everyone and everyone now uses it.  Finally - order where there was chaos.

Contoso now depends on Alice's list.

Now,

• it's no longer "just" Alice's list; Annie has some ideas, and enriches the list.
• arguably, it should no longer be in Alice's OneDrive; it should be in an organisational location, such as a SharePoint site, or a Teams team
  • is that possible? how?  In SharePoint, it used to be pretty primitive; you could save a list as a template, then create a new list based on the template, losing important parts in the transition
• Alice posts her story on LinkedIn.  Woodgrove Bank sees her post and like what they see.  Woodgrove Bank offer her a job with a big pay rise.  Alice accepts; congratulations Alice!
  • but what happens at Contoso?  Alice had actually created many different and important lists in "My Lists" and shared them across the organisation.
  • Wally works at Contoso IT.  He's been notified Alice is leaving, so deletes her account
  • Contoso grinds to a halt - Alice's lists have disappeared!

How can Wally delete any user account anymore, knowing it could contain any number of business-critical Microsoft Lists lists in them?  

Even if Wally knows a user does have one or more Microsoft Lists lists, what can he do about them?

Alice created multiple lists; some are critical to Contoso.  But some are more personal;

• her weekly grocery shopping, which she buys on her way home from work
• Alice arranged a work pot-luck; people contributed what they were bringing
• etc

Is this a data governance and identity lifecycle nightmare, or does Microsoft have a best practice here?  Is it a chargeable extra?  Is it simply to recover a deleted user?  Then what? Alice's resurrected account needs a [chargeable] OneDrive license to keep the Microsoft Lists lists in OneDrive.

Will Microsoft provide administrative controls so that "My Lists" can be disabled, so this scenario cannot arise?  It's a real shame to do this; it potentially stymies "citizen developers" from solving problems locally; but what choice does an organisation that values its data but can't afford an infinite number of licences have?

PS this comment may sound negative; perhaps it is!  I think Microsoft Lists sounds great!  But I still need answers to these concerns

Mark-Kashman Miceile Barrett   

I wonder:

Following up on the question for a demo of lists in SharePoint this question popped up;

When you open a list in Microsoft Teams, will it use the same SharePoint site as used in Files?

This is great news. SharePoint lists are very useful. With the new features and improvements that Microsoft are bringing into lists, are there going to be improvements to overcome one of the known limitations in lists which is ListView threshold please?

Mark-Kashman  This is a very exciting announcement and has great digital transformation potential. 

One thing I'm wondering is what impacts there will be for Events lists, which currently still have a 'classic' backend.

Mark-Kashman, @Miceile Barrett , @Lincoln DeMaris @Chris McNulty love this - from a user standpoint, and as a Global Admin also love that it is an extension and a very easy way to drive adoption of "SharePoint Lists" for new user. BUT...couple of important questions. 

1. Where are "My Lists" stored? - Mark-Kashman saw this in one of you responses on the announcement, OneDrive location - but can you provide specifics about how they are managed? Like as admins, how do we see/get to them? 
2. Will the mobile app support Azure Conditional Access out of the Box?
3. Will the "Lists" app be audited differently?
4. Will DLP and AIP be supported?
5. Can the lists be "Migrated" to new locations? - Example a "My List" to a SharePoint Site?

Mark-Kashman This is lists as we always wanted it. Can't wait to work with it! Would love to see a demo how it behaves inside SharePoint online.

When will it be available in SharePoint?

Love the idea, excited for the tech, lukewarm on the name. I miss the days when MSFT product names were more abstract - Word, Excel, InfoPath, and SharePoint, for example.

Now we’ll have Microsoft Lists lists inside Microsoft Teams teams.

Overall my excitement is high, though. I adore SP lists and this seems like a great logical extension.

This will give a major boost to list!!

Mark-Kashman , will we be able to save list as template and keep all the logic and formatting rules in the template? Will we be able to save the template into a site or it needs to be into my OneDrive site collection (Looking at the process of creating a new list, it looks like the templates are stored in my OneDrive site collection)?

Looking at the demo, will we be able to select any sites to create a new list (Looks like I will only be able to select only from recent sites).

Any info in which quarter it should be available?

Great work!

Thanks.